New Book Trailer for Frozen Assets

New Indie Published Books Go Live!

Finally, both Millicent and Frozen Assets have gone live! For now they're up at Smashwords. Frozen Assets is up on Amazon and Millicent will probably be there tomorrow. Here are the links as they stand now--please note I have included a coupon code for Millicent on Smashwords. Use it if you buy it there (all formats but Kindle/mobi/prc, and get the book for $1.00).


Smashwords
Coupon Code at Checkout (for it discounted to $1.00): RW33Q
Amazon Kindle




Amazon Kindle
Smashwords

Find out more about the new series at www.TheCashChroniclesSeries.com

Interview with Stormy Knight

Stormy Knight is an author of erotic romance and erotica. Her newest work, Red Hot Lightning, a Dirty Bits short story, is available from Sapphire Nights Books. This is my first erotica author on the blog. She is a longtime friend who also writes as herself in another genre.

How did you come up with the title of your book?
Having sex during a thunderstorm has always excited me. I also heard a Mystic Moods song one time that had the thunder in the background while moans can be heard from two lovers in the throes of passion. Of course, it didn’t hurt something similar happened to me a long time ago, so, I can say there’s a kernel of truth in this story.

What is Red Hot Lightning about?
It’s about a woman who has had bad luck in relationships and now has gone a long time without sex. Spurred on by the relentless heat and spiraling tension, she decides to do something about it. She remembers a man has recently given her an invitation to visit, and she doesn’t think he wants her over for tea.

What made you decide to write erotica?
Can I say it was because I hadn’t done it? (grins) I’ve written all types of romance but not this one. I heard Sapphire Nights Books, www.sapphirenightsbooks.com, had an open call for submissions and thought, why not? I’m a male/female erotica kind of girl and don’t think I’ll never get too kinky with my writing, but I believe readers will find it extremely hot.

What are your current projects?
I just finished a novella, All for Lust, the first in what I hope will be a series of three(or maybe more, because I really want to bring back the man who is the love interest in book one). Here’s hoping my editor likes it.

I’ve also submitted another Dirty Bits short story.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Making sure there’s enough sex and it’s varied. I have had a very eventful “dating” life in my past, so I’m no angel. But, I’m still learning about all sorts of things I never tried. Who knew?

Do you have any advice for other writers?
Make sure you really know how to write and practice your craft a lot before you try to submit anything. Don’t think you can throw a lot of sex at the public without a story to hold it together. Did I mention your characters have to be well-developed?

Can you share a blurb with us (G-rated, please)?
Skye Miller is so tense, not even a full set of tennis can unwind her tight muscles—her tension heightened by a raging summer storm that grips the town. But a hot and sweaty set of tennis is not the physical exercise she craves, nor will the pounding rain erase her pain. Thank the sex gods above she remembers a possible remedy just up the street. And he’s already posed the invitation.



Available at:

Smashwords
AllRomance Ebooks
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook

Follow me at http://twitter.com/steamystormy
At my website: www.stormyknight.net
And my blog: http://steamystormyknight.Blogspot.com

Broken Hearts Blogfest

Sorry folks, late today. Here is my post from It's Magic. It's now available in print and online at lost retailers. After you read and/or comment go on to the next blog in the hop by clicking the button in the right sidebar.:

There are many ways in which dogs are superior to their male owners. In previous chapters, I have touched on some of these traits.

Now we will discuss the most important way in which dogs excel: they cannot tell a lie.

A dog hates to admit the truth, especially when it might get him in trouble, but who doesn’t? The real difference between man and his dog is the dog can’t tell a lie.

His body language tells the truth. His tail tucks between his legs. His ears flatten to the sides of his head. His jaw droops. He refuses to look you in the eye, not wanting to see disapproval or disappointment there.

The dog is smart.

Men on the other hand, can be dishonest. They can and do look you in the eye and lie without a trace of remorse. They have become virtuosos of the falsehood.

Here are several of the ways they disguise their deceit:

1. Act like he doesn’t know anything about what happened. This is very effective when they’ve ruined something you own. Say, heaven forbid, you let them near the laundry and they shrink your angora sweater. A man’s response? “How was I supposed to know? It was in the bag next to the washer.” The fact the bag is marked ‘Dry-cleaning’ is not considered relevant.

2. Change the subject when you ask a question. To be fair, this isn’t lying, just not telling the truth. This is what I call “a dishonest omission.”

3. Take the offensive. When you aggressively pursue the truth, the man will turn on you, finding that one kink in your armor and attack. The hoped for result is making you feel guilty.

4. Some men swear they’re telling the truth, while you know they’re lying. These men could be caught naked in bed with a woman and would declare the bedmate was suffering from hypothermia, and he was doing his best to keep her alive. Should you point out that it’s ninety degrees outside, they will attack claiming you’re selfish and don’t care if the woman dies. These men should be avoided at all costs. You’ll never be sure when what they said is reality or well-crafted dishonesty.


After saving her manuscript, Kasey closed the document on her computer. No question about it, she could kick herself for allowing herself to have dreams of what could be fill her mind, and then have them smashed, dashed, and crushed, to bring an acidic bite back to her writing.

Thank God, the book was back on track. Rising from her chair, she ambled from her office and down the front hall. Now, if only she regained control of her life.
Without thinking, she headed for the one place that never disappointed her--the kitchen. With soup spoon in hand, she opened the freezer. Retrieving the half-gallon of Rocky Road ice cream, she prayed she’d left enough from last night’s binge to satisfy tonight’s depression.

Complementary or Opplementary

Please welcome guest blogger, Kat Duncan, who graciously has joined us today to share a writing tip from her upcoming class at Savvy Authors.

A story needs people (characters). The story people need something to do (premise). Which comes first the premise or the people?

Well, my grandfather used to say, "If we had some tea, we could have tea and toast. If we had the toast."

I like to go opposite to the crowd. Most writers start with the premise. Let's try starting with people. We need at least one main character (protagonist). Two is good, since this is probably a romance novel. By the way three is not a crowd in romance. Three is either the antagonist (villain) or a ménage.

The story people have to interact. So you have to decide: are these people complementary or opplementary? Do they complement each other the way Jack Sprat and his wife did? (y'know the you eat fat and I eat lean folks). Complementary characters get along, share common goals and generally help each other.

Or are the characters opplementary? Opplementary people don't get along. They don't see eye to eye. Like Jack and the Giant (y'know the beanstalk guys). This applies to antagonists too. Just because a character is the villain, doesn't mean he can't get along with the protagonist. The scariest villains are characters the protagonist trusts - or thinks he trusts.

Once you decide whether the characters are complementary or opplementary, then you need a premise for them to tangle with. The premise puts the characters in a stressful situation. Stress is good. No stressful situation. No story. The stress can be mild or strong. You don't need to invent wild, mystical places (though it's great if you can) or have lots of shootouts, murders and disasters (though that's fine, too). Statistical analysis of the top ten stressors in life are:

1. Spouse’s death
2. Divorce
3. Marriage separation
4. Jail term
5. Death of a close relative
6. Injury or illness
7. Marriage
8. Fired from job
9. Marriage reconciliation
10. Retirement

So you can start there if you have no other ideas. Any character exposed to these stressors will react by changing behavior. Notice that these stressors are all external happenings. Mental stress goes with the premise, but it rarely works as the premise itself.

Your next job is to decide what is making the character behave that way (the way he's reacting to the stress). Is this the usual way the character behaves, or is it different? Think about who they are and what might make them react this way. For example how would your character react to being fired from a job? Would he be angry, relieved, fearful?

Next, have a look at what the character was expecting to happen versus what did happen. Again, complementary and opplementary can help you out here. If what they were expecting was opplementary, then it was unexpected and they don't like it. If what they were expecting was complementary, then it was unexpected and they do like it.

Notice the unexpected part. We don't want predictable things happening to characters.
Now you've got the proper ingredients for a story:

Complementary or opplementary people reacting to some kind of unexpected stressful situation.

Here are the four parts you need:
1. Complementary or opplementary characters
2. Reacting to
3. an unexpected
4. Stressful Situation

Thanks for stopping by. Share your comments here today and check out my year-long novel writing course that begins in May at Savvy Authors. You can also find me on the web at http://www.katduncan.net/writeabout

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kat Duncan obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry and German from Regis College in Weston, MA. She is a Fulbright Scholar who spent a year in West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. She recently obtained her Master's Degree in Special Education from Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She is a full-time tutor to students from elementary through college and beyond in reading, writing and math. An active member of the New England Chapter of RWA, and RWA-PRO, she has written a series of popular newsletter articles on grammar and style. She has presented a grammar and writing workshops for beginning writers both locally and online. With seven completed manuscripts and numerous short stories she uses a spreadsheet to keep track of her multiple submissions to agents and editors. Her debut book, a romantic suspense novella, titled Fifty-eight Faces, is due out January 12, 2011 from The Wild Rose Press.

Is Time Travel Sci-fi?

Not too long ago, the owner of one of my listservs asked this question: is time travel classified as science fiction? There were mixed answers, but many proclaiming to be science fiction purists said "no." This, to me, makes no sense. I mean, even Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is considered a sci-fi fantasy. So why would so many proclaim it as not of the genre? This is my conclusion: time travel in fiction is more than sci-fi. It is cross-genre and anything that can't be easily classified as one thing is shunned as fitting at all.

I have a new book, make that old book totally re-edited and now a debut book at Black Opal Books. Craigs' Legacy was co-written with Linda Campbell under our pen name, Terry Campbell. It is the story of a modern day financial whiz who is pushed back through time by the ghost of a Confederate Colonel to save his life against three Union deserters. Is it possible? Not that we know of. Was techologically advanced equipment not yet known to man used? No,he pushed her back into an old wardrobe. But, did her body actually pass through a wormhole or cosmic string? Who knows? We may find out one day it can be done.

However, the story itself, though demonstrating how changes in our past can influence the present and the future, is a romance, is an historically-accurate account of times as they existed in 1864 Virginia, is a fantasy in that a woman can find her true love and hold on to it through time.

I am pleased it can be offered as a book that crosses four distinct genres.

Buy links:

Amazon

All Romance Ebooks

Interview with Author, Denise Verrico

Denise Verrico is an author of urban fantasy. Her newest work Twilight of the Gods, Book Two of the Immortyl revolution is available from L&L Dreamspell.

How did you come up with the title?
It’s an allusion to the Norse idea of the Ragnorak. In Norse mythology, Loki is the “mischief maker” and is foretold to bring on the Ragnorak.

What is Twilight of the Gods about?
In book one, Cara Mia, vampires Mia Disantini and Kurt Eisen have done the unthinkable and rebelled against their elder, Brovik, who was funding research on vampire immortality. In addition, the lovers have stolen data that proves that Immortyls are mere biological mutations of human beings. In their culture, to even suggest this is punishable by death.
Mia and Kurt’s motivation is to find a cure for their condition, a rival elder, Gaius, is trying to harness the power of immortality for profit. Kurt builds a force among bands of cast-off teenaged and child vampires called sewer rats to battle Gaius. They give Kurt the nickname Loki. This soon inspires a worldwide revolutionary movement.

Meanwhile, Mia, his strong and independent partner, dislikes being shunted into the background in the “man’s world” of Immortyl politics. To add insult to injury for her, Kurt has formed a romantic attachment to Arturo, an Immortyl who saved his life. She is forced to make a difficult choice for the good of the revolution and her relationship to Kurt.

What books have most influenced your life most?
In my genre, I have to give credit to Anne Rice. I love her dark romanticism. I’m not against books like Twilight, but I do prefer a darker vampire. My next biggest influence would have to be historical fiction authors Mary Renault and Robert Graves. I love the accessible first person narratives in books like The Persian Boy and I Claudius. Court intrigue and politics fascinate me. I also loved Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
I’d have to say that my next book in the series, My Fearful Symmetry, owes a lot to Renault’s The Persian Boy. Renault’s book is told from the POV of Bogoas the companion to Alexander The Great. The tone of Renault’s writing is very conversational. I like that all of this history is happening around the characters, but that personal stories are so accessible.

I loved the idea of writing about a male courtesan, only mine is a vampire and he’s a temple artist in service to the Goddess Kali. His name is Cedric MacKinnon. He’s a nineteen-year-old Scot. Cedric is funny and irreverent; a modern teenager who wants more than anything to be a rock star, but life has dumped him at the bottom of the heap. A chance encounter with a mysterious Indian gentleman leads him to the chief elder’s court and lands him in the middle of a hotbed of political intrigue. I really wanted a character that sees Kurt’s revolution from the inside of the ruling class, but I didn’t want that POV entirely opposed to the idea. Cedric sees and experiences terrible things and does a lot of growing as a character. In a nutshell, the book is about a boy who becomes a vampire and fights to become a man.


What are your current projects?
I’m working on the fourth Immortyl Revolution novel, Ratopia, and a magic-based urban fantasy with a variety of paranormal characters.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I find it hard to do things fast. I don’t know how some authors can get books done so quickly. The research and world building takes time, and I work a full time job. I come from the theatre and dialogue is easy for me. Usually, I write it first. The trick is in balancing how much narrative detail is needed against the dialogue arc of the scene. That’s where the art comes into the craft, and that is where those extra pairs of eyes from writer’s groups come in handy.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Join a critique group if you haven’t. My groups help me so much. Also, strive to be original. Even though I like Anne Rice, I knew I wanted to write something very different. With the glut of vampire books out there, one of the most gratifying things I hear in reviews is that my books are very unique in the genre.



Blurb

Twilight of the Gods, Book Two of the Immortyl Revolution

Narrowly escaping the implosion of Genpath laboratories, vampires Mia Disantini and Kurt Eisen are on the run from Gaius Lupus their rival in the Forbidden Science. When Kurt is captured by their enemy and rescued with the aid of feral vampire kids known as sewer rats, Mia witnesses first hand the charismatic spell her lover casts over these would-be revolutionaries. Setting up base in Manhattan, Kurt builds his forces to face off with Gaius, while independent-minded Mia navigates the minefield of sewer rat politics, which she finds very much a man’s world. The lovers’ deep bond is put to the test by both the beautiful Arturo and Kurt’s followers, who see Mia as standing between them and their beloved “Loki.” Matters are further complicated when the chief elder, Kalidasa, arrives from India to investigate rumors of heresy and revolution. With the threat of war with Gaius drawing ever closer, Mia ands Kurt prepare to meet the biggest challenge of their lives.

Excerpt
Twilight of the Gods, Book Two of the Immortyl Revolution

Virginia 2001

“Mee-ya? Darling, it’s past nine.”

The kerosene lamp beside the old four-poster bed sputtered. My eyes opened on Kurt’s in the flickering light. Paul Newman in his prime on a really good day couldn’t compete with those big blues. “Hello, gorgeous.”

He chuckled and eased his slender body over mine, lips searching my throat for the landmarks, while something warm, hard, and smooth begged for entrance below.

“I dreamed about Ethan.”

He paused in his delicious pursuit to scowl. “Again?”

“I still chose you.”

A smile fluttered over his alarmingly pale mouth. “I must go out tonight to meet Carol.” He gestured to a plastic bag filled with red liquid sitting in a bath of warm water. “Only a pint left.”

“You take it. I had two last night.” I stroked the warmth poised to enter me. “Amazed you still manage. Better wait.” His lower lip pouted. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He pulled away sighing and sat up, stretching and running his fingers through tangled golden curls, a marble angel with a single blemish, inky and obscene on his left forearm, a vestige of his captivity long ago in Dachau. He lifted the plastic bag out of the basin and inserted a straw, drinking it down. The white linen napkin he used to wipe his mouth came away smeared with red. “I’ll take the bike.”

“I’d feel better if you took the car.”

Brushing damp hair back from my eyes, he kissed me. “The wind feels like freedom.” He pulled on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Despite the late August temperatures of Northern Virginia, it was necessary for him to conceal the tattoo. People might not take too kindly to what looked to be a boy in his late teens making an apparent mockery of others’ misery. Unfortunately for Kurt the misery was all too real and personal. I rolled over on the huge bed, sheets sticking to my skin. “We really need an air-conditioner.”

Kurt frowned as he buttoned his shirt. “We been through this—no electricity—no noise.”

“I’m tired of tepid baths. I’m dying for a hot shower. Jesus, even Ethan believed in hot running water.”

“Darling, no one must know we’re camping out here. I don’t like it, either. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer. Carol says she has a meeting with the Justice Department next week about a safe house.”

“Yeah, real safe—level four maximum security.”

“We simply won’t agree to it. We’ll figure out something.” He lifted my chin to kiss me.

His lips were chilly. He needed lots more than the pint he’d just consumed. “Back in half an hour.”

“Be careful. Take a gun.”

He patted a slight bulge under his shirt in the vicinity of his hip. “Don’t worry.”

Kurt left the room. Moments later, gravel crunched as he walked Ethan’s motorcycle down the long drive and through the gate to the road. The bike growled and then buzzed into the distance. I worried about Kurt out there where our enemies might be lying in wait. Where did he get off becoming so annoyingly male and protective on me? He wasn’t trained to fight. He was small and slight and against a bigger, stronger vampire he was no match. I was a better shot than he, and I’d already saved his life once.